Earth reveals a new "hidden moon" that has been following it for six decades.

scientist

Earth reveals a new "hidden moon" that has been following it for six decades.

For 4.5 billion years, the Moon has been Earth's constant celestial companion, gracing its skies and profoundly influencing human lives by controlling the tides and helping stabilize the seasons.

However, today, astronomers revealed an exciting surprise: another "sub-orbital moon" has been following our planet on its journey around the sun for decades, undetected.

At the Pan-STARRS observatory in Hawaii, a team of experts observed a new celestial object, dubbed "2025 PN7." It turned out to be a small asteroid, no more than 19 meters wide, but it has been following a unique path that has made it a "quasi-moon" of Earth since the 1960s.

A body that does not revolve around the Earth

Although it appears to be orbiting our planet, 2025 PN7 actually orbits the Sun in a nearly Earth-synchronous orbit.

According to data analyzed by scientists, this asteroid has been in a near-Earth orbit for about 60 years, and is likely to remain so for another 60 years before changing course and departing, according to a report by the British Daily Mail.

smaller and less stable

This asteroid joins six other known "quasi-moons" that follow orbits similar to Earth's, but it stands out as the "smallest and least stable" to date.

The first quasi-moon was discovered in 1991, when the object "1991 VG" appeared, which sparked widespread controversy at the time. Some scientists believed that it might be a space probe of non-human origin, before it later became clear that these objects were completely natural.

It forms a kind of "secondary asteroid belt" that accompanies the Earth and the Moon on their journey around the Sun.

Not visible to the naked eye

However, unlike our bright moon, which can be seen with the naked eye, 2025 PN7 is very faint and can only be observed using powerful telescopes.

Scientists also confirmed that it is not bound by Earth's gravity, making it an "elusive companion" that appears to orbit Earth while in fact accompanying it on its solar path.

Although six decades is a relatively long time, the existence of 2025 PN7 seems short compared to the famous quasi-moon Kamoʻoalewa, which accompanies Earth in a tidally locked orbit for about 381 years.

Both fall into a special class of celestial bodies known as Arjunas, asteroids that move in harmony with Earth's journey around the Sun.
The new asteroid travels within a wide range of distances from our planet, ranging from 4.5 million kilometers to 59 million kilometers, making it extremely difficult to detect.